What makes a project ringfence? For Metlen, it’s complicated
Whirlbush Farm, near Thame in Buckinghamshire, farms sheep and electricity. Buckinghamshire Council approved an application in 2022 for Whirlbush to install solar panels, fixed at a height that would allow “low-intensity grazing to occur”. Metlen Energy and Metals, the London-listed Greek industrial conglomerate, took over development of the approximately £32mn-valued project shortly after it had won planning approval.
To link the project’s expenses to its future cash flows, Whirlbush was ringfenced in a UK-registered special-purpose vehicle. Metlen’s asset rotation business uses a lot of these companies, which isolate its own balance sheet from the risk of individual project failure or default. The company’s 2025 annual report lists more than 200 SPVs across more than a dozen jurisdictions.
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